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The Sugar Act Essay

592 Words3 Pages

The French and Indian War left England with a debt of £130,000,000. To help pay off the debt Britain set up taxes, to collect money, on frequently used products by the colonists. The Molasses Act put a six pence tax on every gallon of molasses. The colonists thought this was a lot of money to pay so they did everything to avoid it. This act was not really enforced and the colonists did not really obey this act. Britain needed a way to fix this. They came up with the Sugar Act, a set of taxes to help Britain raise money. Taxes were not a new thing for the colonists, but these new taxes caused big issues. The Sugar Act was suggested by Prime Minister George Greenville. There are four reasons for the Sugar Act. First, they could use the taxes …show more content…

The taxes that the Sugar Act placed made the most money for Britain, more than any of the other taxes did. The colonist were very upset with the Sugar Act because of the way it was enforced. The Sugar Act took away the colonist’s right to a trial by jury when the British set up the Admiralty courts. Admiralty courts were where a judge decides the outcome rather than the colonial courts. The judges would earn 5% of however much the cargo load was worth if they could prove the person accused was guilty. The Admiralty courts were set up to try colonists for buying products from different countries other than Britain. The Admiralty Courts were run by the British Navy. Prime Minister George Grenville also set the Navy to enforce the new tax and the shipping regulations. The Sugar Act raised the issue of unfair taxation. Since the American colonies are one of the few that would buy sugar from the British West Indies, the Sugar Act really only applied to the colonists and not the other British citizens. During the Sugar Act the first organized protests were held against the British authorities defying the Sugar Act. Every once in a while there would be violent outbursts against the British authorities. These outbursts were especially in New York and Rhode Island. Samuel Adams and James Otis told the colonists that they

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